Tougher court penalties

Press, 19 December 1981, Page 8

Tougher court penalties

NZPA-Reuter london Martial law will mean faster trials and stiffer penalties in Polish courts, according to Warsaw broadcasts yesterday. — The death penalty may be used for crimes that did not carry it before; — Those convicted will have no right of appeal; — The minimum penalty for those tried under summary procedure will be three years in prison; and, — Military courts will try some of those arrested for resisting the imposition of martial law or for continuing activities banned by the new

Communist military regime. Warsaw television broadcast an explanation of the legal aspects of martial law by an official spokesman identified as a representative of the Justice Ministry. He gave a long list of crimes for which the new summary trials might be used. Many were vaguelyworded charges which could conceivably be applied to dissident and trade union activities banned under martial law, to common crimes of violence and theft, or to crimes such as corruption and maladministration. The spokesman said that crimes which would be dealt

with in summary fashion in- - eluded: i • Crimes against Poland's i fundamental political and > economic interests; • Crimes • against general f security; r • Crimes against life, limb : and property; • The mist serious economic I crimes; > • Crimes against the activi ity of State and social institutions; ; • Certain crimes against the • administration of justice; i • Violations of State and job secrets, and, • Certain acts against public order.

Under summary proceedings trials that would formerly take a week might be completed in a day, the spokesman said. Jail sentences would range from three years to 25 years and. for serious crimes which previously carried minimum penalties of eight years in prison, the death penalty could now be applied. In another broadcast Warsaw television interviewed a military prosecutor who said that several dozen cases were being prepared for summary military trial, mostly of people who incited public unrest or kept up activities now banned.